Share this:

So, I just touched down in rain-soaked Oakland (or is this Youngstown?) and was greeted by e-mailed transcripts from 49ers players provided by brilliant and generous beat writers Janie McCauley (Associated Press) and Grant Cohn (of the great Santa Rosa Press Democrat)! The duo was among other writers in Santa Clara today in the afterglow of the 49ers’ 24-23 comeback win in Philadelphia.

Here’s Niners cornerback Carlos Rogers, who says, among other things, that his new team has a distinctly un-Redskins vibe, right down to the head coach hanging with the players on the victory flight home:

Q: Talk about this team’s ability to get that plus/minus ratio going in their favor.

ROGERS: That’s something coaches put a lot of emphasis on, especially with the back end (of the defense.) We do so many ball drills during practice. You get the safeties out there one day catching balls. You get the corners out there one day catching balls. Some guys are on the Jugs Machine. Offense is always talking about protecting the ball. If you can do those things – defense get turnovers, offense protect the ball – it’s going to count for a lot of wins.

Q: What is it about this team that’s making the key plays other teams aren’t?

ROGERS: Just doing it. Coming into that game, people never gave us a shot. And I told guys the pressure wasn’t on us to come out and win, it was all on the Eagles. Looking at the 49ers coming in the preseason, all the talk throughout the lockout, we were supposed to be sorry. There wasn’t no pressure on us – we were supposed to be sorry. We were supposed to come in and lose so many games – Coach Harbaugh’s first year, Alex as the quarterback, all the negative talk. And looking at the Eagles, a team with all the guys they brought in in the offseason, the dream team so-called. All the pressure was on them. We just had to come in and play ball and play it throughout the whole game. If you can see that’s what we did. We didn’t get down about the 20-3 lead. Coach came in at halftime like, guys, keep your heads up, don’t worry about it. We’re going to come with this offense. We’re going to exploit the secondary and just go right at them, and that’s what they did. We got some stops on Vick. They still got some yards in the second half, missed some field goals which helped us out, but we just kept plowing and came up with the victory.

Q: What makes you believe Harbaugh when he says we’re going to fire up this offense?

ROGERS: You just do. You don’t have a choice. Being in this league, I’ve seen so many times where you’ve been up one half, a quarter, whatever it is, and think you’re going to have the victory and you just slip that one little bit. That little motivation gets teams. We scored, we scored a field goal, whatever it was, and all of a sudden you’re hearing the boos from the Philly fans. Things like that turn the game around. If you’re not on your game the whole game – we’ve seen it with the Cowboys. We were up. Everybody was shocked about that, and they came back and beat us.

Q: When you hear those boos what do you think?

ROGERS: We just have to keep going. At the time we weren’t up, so it was like we were getting back in and getting the motivation, getting everything on our side. At that time we were down six points. I was like, if we score again they’ll really leave. And at that time, fans started leaving. Once we got the ball and our offense got those first downs, it was over.

Q: Talk about Harbaugh’s ability to deal with you guys as people?

ROGERS: You just take what they give you. You just listen to them. With anybody they’ve got a philosophy, something they want to come in and establish. That’s what everybody’s done. When he first came in with training camp we were having close to three-hour practices. I was like, golly, what’s going on? Why are we doing this? But he had a plan behind that – practice hard, build your body up, your conditioning for times when you have to go 50, 60, 70 plus plays, and you’ll be ready throughout the whole game. This is my seventh year and I’ve never been through a training camp like that. If I can do it, you’ve got guys on this team that are younger than me, they can do it.

Q:What is Harbaugh like? We don’t know him very well.

ROGERS: I would say blue collar. He’s a blue collar guy, blue collar coach. It was so funny, when we were flying back on the plane, he’s back there with us. He gave up his first class seat to come back with the players and sit in the coach seats with us. He even had someone beside him – someone he was watching video with. When do you see a coach want to give up their first class seat and come back there and sit with the players throughout a five hour flight? He’s just a blue collar worker. He’s not about the fancy stuff. Just come out here and work hard and play football and you’ll see the results.

Q: Did the three hour practices help you yesterday?

ROGERS: Oh yeah, they do. Like I said, we’re going to keep building up. This team won’t be down, won’t quit, won’t give up, won’t be tired. In preseason he was all about I don’t care if y’all are tired for these games. I’m not worried about these games. Y’all can be tired. Guys were like, man, we still want to win, we don’t want to be out there tired, but now we see what he’s saying.

Q: Where was he sitting on the plane? Who was he sitting next to?

ROGERS: He was on the window exit row. I’m new so I don’t know everybody’s name, but he was back there. I was right across from him on the other side of the plane, and I looked over at the time we walked on the plane, and of course all the coaches, the ownership, they’ve got the first class seats. I looked behind me, he was walking behind me like, anybody want my seat? I was like nah, coach. I don’t know who took it, but I’m pretty sure it was one of the big guys (it was Jonathan Goodwin).

Q: So you’ve never seen anything quite like that?

ROGERS: Never, never, never. This is a different team from what I’m used to. You see the owners, you see the general manager flying back with the team, not on their own plane. We get off and go to the hotel, they’re on the bus with us, always traveling with us. In the locker room. Giving guys good luck before the game. Talking to guys after the game. Shaking their hands. I’ve never experienced that. You can see the family-type atmosphere there is around here.

Q: What was Harbaugh doing in the back of the plane?

ROGERS: Watching film. Other than that he was asleep.

Q: When he asks you guys who’s got it better than us, what does that mean?

ROGERS: Like I said, he’s a blue collar guy, and it’s about sacrificing, not complaining. He gave us an example of the house he lived in. It was not even 1,000 (square) feet, two bedrooms I think. His parents had a room, his sister, and him and his brother, I think they slept on the floor. His dad always said nobody has it better than y’all. You can complain about these things, but you can look at how he grew up and where his family’s been to the success he’s having right now. That’s what he talks about with us. It’s not always pretty on the other side. Look at what we’re doing and look at what the other teams are doing. It resembles what some of the other teams were doing during training camp. And look at us – we’re working. Some teams are out there having fun. Some teams taking off, and what we’re doing is paying off.